6th Century, 501 to 600

501 In Central America, the Maya are peaking in economic prosperity.
The civilization at Teotihuacán (in what is today Mexico) begins to decline and its people are migrating to the greatest Mayan city, Tikal, bringing with them ideas about weaponry and new ritual practices. Maya population is rising.

507 The Franks,
who are Catholic, use the Arian Christianity of the Visigoths as an excuse to
expand against them – Catholics seeing Arianism as a heresy. The Franks defeat
the Visigoths, kill their king, Alaric II, and drive them into Spain.

511 Clovis, king of the Franks, dies
and, as is custom among the Franks, the lands of Clovis are divided among his
four sons, beginning the sordid rule of Europe's "Merovingian" kings.

523 In northern China, power within
the Tuoba Wei family (a Xiongnu family rather than Chinese) has passed to a
dowager queen who is a devout Buddhist – Queen Hu.

524 One of the four sons of Clovis,
Clodomer, dies, and two of the other sons of Clovis, Clotaire and Childebert,
seize Clodomer's lands for themselves and murder his children.

525 Living in Italy under the rule
of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, Boethius has been accused of treason and
imprisoned. He has written his work On the Consolation of Philosophy
while in captivity, and in a year he is executed.

528 Hephthalites (White Huns) have
moved from the Hindu Kush into the Punjab and eastward across the Ganges Valley,
ravaging cities, towns and Buddhist monasteries, and now they are driven back,
out of the Ganges Valley.

528 Despite her Buddhism, Queen Hu
has resorted to an old monarchist tool: killing people. She has executed lovers
who have displeased her. She has forced a rival into a convent and has had her
executed, and in 528 she executes her son, who was growing restless under the
tutelage of her lovers.

529 Justinian, Catholic Roman emperor
at Constantinople since 518, closes down Plato's old academy in Athens as part
of a move to stamp out paganism.

531 Khosrau I, of the Sassanian dynasty,
comes to power in Persia. He has crushed the communistic Mazdakite
movement and has ended decades of disorder. He is to support Zoroastrianism
and to reform and improve Persia's economy, making taxes more equitable and
curbing the power of aristocrats.

533 Getting the world ready for the
Second Coming of Christ, Emperor Justinian sends his army to reconquer what
had been parts of the Roman Empire. In North Africa he defeats the Vandals,
who are Arian Christians, and he conquers territory and souls for the Church.

534 Continuing the Frankish tradition
of making war for the sake of plunder, Clotaire and Childebert have overrun
the kingdom of Burgundy – including the cities of Lyons and Geneva. The royal
dynasty in Burgundy ends with the death of Gundimar. An independent Kingdom
of Burgundy is no more.

534 Toledo becomes the capital of the
Visigoth kingdom in Spain.

534 Outraged court officials rebel
against Queen Hu. She cuts her hair and seeks refuge in a Buddhist nunnery,
but the officials drag her out and assassinate her. Also, two thousands courtiers
are killed. Northern China divides between western and eastern halves of the
Wei dynasty.

536 Justinian's army invades Italy
at Naples.

550 What had been Roman-ruled Britain
is largely divided among illiterate Anglo-Saxon warlords, surrounded by men
who are preoccupied with fighting, valor and loyalty. They look with contempt
upon the what they see as the defeated God of the defeated Christians.

550 Rule in India is again divided
among numerous kingdoms. Profitable trade with the Roman Empire has ended, and
trade with Persia had also declined, which brings decline to some of India's
cities. In India a movement called Bhakti has begun and is growing. They
practice humility and sing of their adoration and love for a generous, merciful,
supreme God.

554 Justinian's' army defeats the Ostrogoths
of Italy. Rome and much of Italy is in ruin. The Pope and Catholicism
now reign supreme in Rome and central Italy. The Trinity version of Christianity
has won against Arianism, violence again deciding a matter of theology.

560 The Hephthalites have returned
to their power center near Samarkand. They are attacked, defeated by a Persian-Turkish
alliance, the Persians taking revenge for the defeat that the Hephthalites had
given their forefathers the previous century. The Hephthalites vanish as an
identifiable people.

560 Ethelbert I succeeds his warlord
father, Eormenric, in a kingdom in southern England called
Kent – one of the older if not oldest Anglo-Saxon
settlements in England, dating from the mid-400s or a couple of decades earlier.
The young Ethelbert is soon to marry the Catholic daughter of the king of Paris,
Charibert, a grandson of Clovis.

568 Constantinople has been weakened
by its prolonged wars and by warring tribes into its empire. The Lombards invade
Italy, reaching Milan.

577 A Xiongnu chieftain, Yan Ch'ien,
unifies northern China by force.

581 Diffusion brings Chinese rule in
northern China back to the Chinese. The Xiongnu chieftain, Yan Ch'ien, dies in
580 under mysterious circumstances. Replacing him is his son-in-law, Yang Jian,
a tough Buddhist soldier from an aristocratic Chinese family, who has had the
title Duke of Sui. Yang Jian proclaims that heaven and earthly signs indicate
that he, being virtuous and wise, has been designated by heaven as the rightful
successor. He takes the name Emperor Wen, and to eliminate rivalry he has fifty-nine
people murdered. The Sui Dynasty has begun.

587 In Japan, the Soga clan, which
has intermarried with the royal Yamato family, fights the Mononobe and Nakatomi
clans over influence in selecting a successor to the Emperor Yomei has taken
place. The Soga favor importing Buddhism from the Asian mainland, described
there as the religion of the most civilized. The Mononobe and Nakatomi hold
that Buddhism would be an affront to the gods of the emperor. The Soga win the
civil war. The head of the Soga family, Umako, makes his nephew, Sujun, emperor.

588 In Spain, the king of the Visigoths,
Recared I, has discarded Arian Christian and converts to Catholicism. And as
the king goes, so goes his nation.

589 From northern China, Emperor Wen
has gained power through the south. After 271 years of division, China is again
united.

592 Emperor Sujun wants to be rid of
his benefactor, Umako, but Umako strikes first and has Sujun murdered. Umako
places his thirty-nine year-old daughter, Suiko, on the throne and
makes her twenty-nine year-old nephew, Shotoku, regent.

594 Shotoku converts Suiko to Buddhism.
Buddhism becomes the state religion and is called upon to protect the Japanese
nation.

600 Monotheistic religion has spread
to Arabia. Jews have been in Arabia for centuries. Christian missionaries have
been in Arabia for more than a century. The entire Arabian province of Najran
is Christian. Christianity has been established superficially in various other
centers of trade, and Arabs living on the borders of Constantinople's empire
and Persia's empire have been influenced by those empires.